Preston Brooks

Preston Brooks (5 August 1819-27 January 1857) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D) from South Carolina's 4th district from 4 March 1853 to 27 January 1857, succeeding John McQueen and preceding Milledge L. Bonham. Brooks was best known for his 22 May 1856 assault on Republican Party senator Charles Sumner with a cane.

Biography
Preston Brooks was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina on 5 August 1819, and he attended the University of South Carolina; he was expelled just before graduation for threatening local police officers with guns. In 1840, he was wounded in a duel with future Texas senator Louis Wigfall, forcing him to use a cane for the rest of his life, and he served in the Palmetto Regiment of the US Army during the Mexican-American War after serving a term in the State House of Representatives. In 1853, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a Democratic Party congressman from South Carolina's 4th congressional district, and he took an extremely pro-slavery stance. On 22 May 1856, two days after Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner gave an inflammatory speech against the Southern senators complicit with the violence of Bleeding Kansas, Brooks decided to punish Sumner with a public beating. Brooks attacked Sumner with his cane, and he beat Sumner until his cane broke. Brooks' actions were popular in the American South, as many saw his actions as upholding the South's honor against the North; he would be fined $300 by a Washington DC court for his actions. He died from respiratory illness (croup) on 27 January 1857 at the age of 37.